May 28, 2010 2:29 PM

The Best flies and bees are plants! Now is the time that many of our orchids are in flower and some of the most striking are the Ophrys (Fly, Bee and Spider Orchids). While Fly's are in decline and Spiders have always been rare, the Bee is definitely increasing - a consequence of our more Mediterranean climate. There are lots of different forms and we really would like to see your images and sightings as they are under-recorded!

I came across these beauties a few months back when visiting Cromer! No idea what species they are, but there was a particular meadow that was full of them. Really great to find them, and these were the first I've seem growing wild.

Nice pics! You've got Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) and Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii). The first is really nice - like a lot opf our plants of unimproved wetlands it has declined a lot and I guess is now most frequently found in coastal dune-slacks but does have a bit of a stronghold in the Broads. Its quite variable in the intensity of the purplish pigments - your first photo shows quite a pale-flowered plant but it does still show some purple so can't be called var. ochroleuca/var albiflora.

On a patch of nearby chalk grassland, so far this year, I have counted 17 Bee Orchids (only 5 last year) and 20 Man Orchids (only 12 last year). There also seems to be many more Pyramid and Common Spotted Orchids than last year. I wonder if this is the result of the weather or of a second season of conservation grazing by 2 ponies.

You might like to watch our bee orchids and insect mimicry video to find out more about some of these beautiful orchids - Fred visited the North Downs in Kent on a rather blustery day! And we've added a slideshow of orchid images of some of the unusual varieties.

Please keep adding your own images here, with info about where you saw them - as Fred says, we're keen to know about your sightings, particularly of unusual forms, as they are under-recorded.

really interesting to hear that you've been finding more this year. I'm particularly interested in your Man Orchids - this is a species that the BSBI have targeted for monitoring this year but in several places where I'm familiar with it it hasn't done well this year.

12 July 2012. At Bishop Middleham Quarry, County Durham. Hundreds of spotted orchid, a few pyramidal orchid, a few fragrant orchid, a very few bee orchid, many dark red helleborines coming into flower.

Thanks for sharing some nice pics. Its a nice site - haven't been there for over 20 years sadly so glad to know that it's still well worth a visit! I seem to recall there being Butterfly Orchids too.... perhaps just a senior moment though?

Fragrant Orchids are always worth looking twice at - where once we just thought we had 1 species we now know we have 3! The shape of the labellum, flowering time and to an extent habitats differ.

Liz is quite right this is a small plant of Snapdragon - Antirrhinum majus.

I think that people often think plants with showy zygomorphic flowers (i.e. ones that are bilaterally as opposed to radially symmetrical) are orchids and they've got a point as all of our orchids do have flowers like that. The orchids have an inferior ovary though - i.e the petals, etc are borne on the top of the bit that will become the seed pod not wrapped around it, hiding it as here.

Earlier this month there were lots of bee orchids on the verge beside the South Norfolk Council offices' carpark. and one solitary bee orchid in verge about half a mile away, both Long Stratton. Quite a few on Tibenham Airfield, also South Norfolk

A friend at work passed an article from the Guardian on to me about this web page.

We have 3 resident Bee orchids on our Chemical site built along the southerly bank of the Solent, Hythe Southampton.

I think they are apifera.

This year one plant apparently had a good flower spike but the slugs ignored the danger tape and metal fencing which has been errected around it by orchid enthusiasts on site.

There are also quite alot of (possibly) Early Marsh orchids which did exceptionally well this year spreading from their usual large group and springing up to dot around a few more distant slopes.

I thought it might be nice to mention that these orchids and their soil symbionts can still manage to survive on a site like this.

Also saw quite a few orchids on holiday in Devon at the end of June at Finlake Holiday Park near Newton Abbot. Apparently the lodges are built in an old quarry. The deciduous/ oak woodland was amazing and looked really old. I was really suprised when I was told by a groundsman that it wasn't. There were alot of (possibly) fragrant orchids dotted throughout. It made my holiday even nicer to spend a week living amongst them.

The groundsman said there were Bee orchids at the park but I didn't get to see any.

Since orchids caught my interest I have always assumed that a region had to contain a pristine and un damaged microbiological world for orchids to grow. It really suprises me that obviously when by rare chance the right soil conditions and fungus come together these ingenius plants manage to flower.

Noticed quite a few pyramidal orchids along the roadsides while in Devon too.

Very interesting and bizarre that the weird wet weather has triggered or permitted more flowering. Sounds baffling!

Four bee orchids turned up in a wild flower patch in our woodland in late June 2012, Leafield, West Oxfordshire. It was such an exciting surprise - this is the first time we have seen orchids here! This appears to have been a bumper year for them overall. The patch where they appeared is mown once a year in September and is on very poor limey soil.

Think I have found two locations with Bee Orchids (?) with total of 42 plants. As yet there are no flower spikes to verify the variety. Best I can offer are early photos. Several have grown a stem over the past 7-10 days.

spot on with your ID. It can be pretty difficult telling a lot of Orchids apart vegetatively. John Poland's excellent Vegetative Key helps a little but not for everything. There is something reasonably distinctive about Bee Orchid leaves though (although both Spiders can be similar - if usually smaller - and you are unlikely just to stumble on them) - the colour and an almost puckered silvery translucency to surface between the veins of the leaves which your photo shows nicely. By the time they are this far on you can see that there are only going to be few but big flowers which rules everything else out.

Its worth pointing out that the pictures are of the hybrid between the Monkey and the Lady Orchids (Orchis x angusticruris) which are only known in the UK from this site and which have developed over the last c. 10 years following the appearance of the Lady Orchid after some scrub clearance. I believe the number of hybrids has reached 135 this year and they do look very striking. Well worth looking at the excellent website maintained by the warden - just google Hartslock.

Genetic work suggests that the Monkey's here have captured some genes from the very rare Military Orchid which used to grow nearby in the 19th century but is now only known from 3 sites in Britain. Paradoxically though they are paler and smaller than "purer" monkey orchid plants from its other known British site in Kent.

No Bee orchids, I'm afraid, but here's some spotted on holiday in Cornwall - Kynance cove. They were growing very close to the sea and must be tougher than they look to withstand the strong winds and salt.

At roundabout, top of M25 J8 (Reigate) in NW corner by traffic lights saw three Bee Orchids as I waited for lights to turn green. There's a patch of rough grass which never gets maintained and had one Bee last year.

A few Pyramidals (I think - hard to be sure in rush hour traffic) earlier in June on next section round by A217 lanes to Reigate / M25 slip road westbound but grass gets mown by council unfortunately and cuttings never removed. Few Pyramidals this year compared to previous.

I'm always hoping for the lights to be red on teh roundabout so I can have quick look. Great to see the Bee Orchids with the M25 streaming by underneath.

Hello - I'd be grateful if you could confirm bee orchid please? I noticed the rosette of leaves in our lawn before its first mow in April, and have mowed around it since. We are just south of Ulverston in south cumbria - not many records in the Cumbria flora (though there are a few from this area) and I gather that this species is expanding its range northwards. Many thanks. Edward Mills

Edward, Good to see you identified these before mowing (as did Melissa). Nice picture and very clearly a Bee Orchid. Located some in my lawn for first time this year. Now set aside an area 6 m x 4m as a wild flower patch.

Aussie Ed here. I had a good showing of Bee Orchids in my back lawn this past summer (27 flowered) plus a further 16 in nearby green space. Council very co-operative in not mowing the green space once I informed them.

Die back of leaves over late July/Aug/Sept has now revealed new leaf growth of 19 plants which will now 'winter over'. I kept the seed so hope for further propogation in coming years. Location Bury St Edmunds.

I have just found about 10 Bee Orchid plants flowering in our meadow. Five years ago the meadow used to be regularly mown but when we moved in, we decided to leave it and see what came up. The first two years were mainly some very nasty spiky thistles, meadow grasses and a few primroses and cowslips. The last two years have given us lots of buttercups and Ox-eye daisies plus more cowslips. This year we had a carpet of primroses and cowslips with a few violets which have now been followed by purple clover, speedwell, purple vetch, ox-eye daisies (much fewer) and the truly lovely bee orchids (and no thistles!). The meadow is cut in early July and again in September. We are in North Suffolk, IP22 post code, bordering common land.

I found 15 bee orchids today (probaly more that I couldnt see in the long grass) on Grove Airfield (WW2 disused now) in Wantage, Oxfordshire - SU395894. The site is due to be built on soon, with a large housing development. Is there any way that the orchids should be reported officially and maybe removed from site before the building work starts?

Amanda, Well spotted. Certainly every effort should be made to protect them. The march of bricks and mortar will destroy them! Your first approach should be to the Local Authority whos area this is in. They have a Legal duty to 'protect them' as all wild orchids in UK are a protected specie.

I dont think this will stop the houses being built but the Local Enviroment Officer could (should) devise a plan to up lift them and reposition in a suitable 'wild area' where they may stand a chance. (similar generally poor impoverished soil is vital)

You cant just dig up the 'corm' as any root damage kills them. They need to be dug up with a 'clod' of soil about 8-9 inches square kept intact. The best time is about March but if risk of loss is imminent then any time has to be tried.

I moved several rather wayward specimens scattered in my lawn so as to consolidate them in a more manageable patch. I only lost one.

If the local authotrity isnt co-operative then there must be a local flora & fauna group who will assist save them.

Update - County Recorder didnt respond, so I contacted the Wildlife Trust who said they couldnt move them, plus I contacted the local environment officer who again I've not heardback from. Looks like the developers will end up killing despite my efforts.

Amanda, Go to the Local Newspaper and ask for their help. Explain that as a Protected Species - no one in Authority is responding ( news papers love exposing those who should act - just sitting on their hands )

The only other solution is to move them yourself. Dig a spades worth all around them (ie about 8-9" square clod) and put them into an equal size hole somewhere else.

Amanda, Bit more info which might help you. Try contacting the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum Office phone 01865 407034; or email the Forums Chairman robin.buxton@btinternet.com tele 01865 407297 and see if they can help.

One of their Trustees is Victoria Fletcher who also happens to be Natural Environment Manager for Oxfordshire County Council. Try rattling a few doors there.

Just a few quick observations.... no one loves Bee Orchids more than me and its sad to see them, or any nice vegetation destroyed by building, or other means BUT it is an increasing and rather weedy species of disturbed and open places and will often disappear through natural successional processes. They produce prodigious quantities of seeds which hopefully will be dispersed by the wind to new suitable sites.

By all means try to get the landowners approval and move them if they are certain to be destroyed.

There are several fallacies surrounding orchids - the name just conjures up some sort of mystique but many are very common and actually of low conservation significance. They are not all "protected species" any more than any plant is accorded protection from uprooting without the landowners permission. Some very rare species, including the Bee's relatives the Late and Early Spider are specifically protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act schedule 8 but most are not.

Just a few quick observations.... no one loves Bee Orchids more than me and its sad to see them, or any nice vegetation destroyed by building, or other means BUT it is an increasing and rather weedy species of disturbed and open places and will often disappear through natural successional processes. They produce prodigious quantities of seeds which hopefully will be dispersed by the wind to new suitable sites.

By all means try to get the landowners approval and move them if they are certain to be destroyed.

There are several fallacies surrounding orchids - the name just conjures up some sort of mystique but many are very common and actually of low conservation significance. They are not all "protected species" any more than any plant is accorded protection from uprooting without the landowners permission. Some very rare species, including the Bee's relatives the Late and Early Spider are specifically protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act schedule 8 but most are not.

Just a few quick observations.... no one loves Bee Orchids more than me and its sad to see them, or any nice vegetation destroyed by building, or other means BUT it is an increasing and rather weedy species of disturbed and open places and will often disappear through natural successional processes. They produce prodigious quantities of seeds which hopefully will be dispersed by the wind to new suitable sites.

By all means try to get the landowners approval and move them if they are certain to be destroyed.

There are several fallacies surrounding orchids - the name just conjures up some sort of mystique but many are very common and actually of low conservation significance. They are not all "protected species" any more than any plant is accorded protection from uprooting without the landowners permission. Some very rare species, including the Bee's relatives the Late and Early Spider are specifically protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act schedule 8 but most are not.

Excellent picture and typically Bee orchid. These are more advanced than those here in Bury St Edmunds.

Sadly the numbers here in the two estalished areas are well down this year. Anyone else noticed this in their area?

Those in my backgarden have dropped from 30+ to just 12, and in the public space the 62 plants I counted in March have deminished to 15 ! I suspect the cause to be the exceptionally dry spell we have had here throughout March/April/May.

One consolation is that a second group have been located in nearby green space (6 very mature plants) but have always previously been cut down by mowing and never grown flower spike. Local Council very co-operative in protecting the area now it is identified.

Don't have any pictures but I saw masses of what I believe are pyramidal orchids at the bottom of the north bound slip road from the M40 at Junction 6. I was amazed that there were so many in such a bizarre situation. I can get pictures if you want?